I'm proud to say that I'm Jimmy Herman's manager and have been his friend for the past 25 years. I had a front row seat for many of the shenanigans that went on at Shawnee Lookout, although fortunately I was absent on the day of the Great Friday Night League Rainout/Tattoo misadventure.
The article hits everything right on the nose. Shawnee is/was fun and terrible and exhausting and frustrating. It perhaps downplays a bit just how dangerous of a place it was. Carts would routinely be overturned and people often thrown out, sometimes seriously injured. And rare was a round where a golf ball didn't fly within at least 20 yards of your head. It's obvious that there was zero priority given to strategy, shot values, nor any of the other ideas we use to evaluate and debate courses with here on GCA.
But it was cheap, accessible golf in an area and at a time that served its purpose. My non-GCA group of friends will often debate what makes a great day of golf - where you play, how well you play, or who you play with. At its most basic Shawnee was a reminder that where we play isn't always the most important part of the game.
Michael